As is custom and appropriate, in remembrance of our late friend Gatorama who still inspires many of us to take these types of trips. We're college football fans for a reason, and few could illustrate that as well as he could.
Houston/Colllege Station, TX: a nearly annual visit to a game(s) with my younger brother, a childhood friend, and lately, a mystery guest of two, which we methodically scout 6-9 months out, often looking to pair it with either another game (in this case ALDS Game 2) or some other event (some year's Breeders' Cup) others a fishing spot. I was the only guy in our group that has been to Kyle Field before ('98 Nebraska, '06 Nebraska), two outstanding games, '98 game was #2 v #18, and the A&M 28-21 win broke Nebraska's 40 game regular season conference game winning streak. The '06 game was Billy Callahan's 'best win' a last second(s) 28-27 score. Last night's game, well, certainly in my top 5 I've seen in a sample of over 120 games.
Perhaps more relevant, I've now seen Kyle Field in three different iterations. There have been three significant renovations to Kyle Field since the late 90s, as many of us know ole Dollar Bill Byrne really got the spending going at College Station and it doesn't seem to have slowed down much. The place is enormous (106,000+ last night, 2nd largest crowd) and it is a really nice stadium now. Many of us have a lot we can gripe about without naming stadiums, really don't have much negative to say. Lighting is exceptional. PA sharp. Video replays, and showing them promptly and with multiple views, best anywhere, no matter if controversial. Egress, very good. Concourses comfortable. I didn't buy any food, did get a beer. My brother was able to video stream the N v Mich game from the seats with little latency. out of town scores were fast, stats ribbon accurate and fast. Band: Love the precision of the Fighting' Texas Aggie Band. Crowd: I always tout Kyle Field as my favorite/loudest and that hasn't
changed. Crowd is just relentless, a reasonable balance of Yell Leader inspired noise and of course the obligatory b/t down music. Great flyover, cool surprise seeing K. Middleton hoisting the Bucks' NBA Championship Trophy during pregame. Clearly awkward video shot of JFF, most of crowd embraced that, but it seemed to have been done as quickly as possible. These were easily my worst seats I've had for the three visits, but no less enjoyable.
We talk about how TV experience has surpassed in stadium experience, and often that is accurate unfortunately. Kyle Field's putting on a good defensive. Several 'big time' B1G stadiums could learn some lessons watching how this places operates. We did make our way down to the field afterwards, and no, I wasn't stupid enough to run out there in a sprint towards Saban and his entourage, like that dizzy chick who was pancaked by the trooper.
Some general remarks from my rookies in the group: Man, Walking around here is like Vegas. Everything seems close 'I can see it', but you're still so far away. The place (and Northgate) has exploded since I last was in town. Setting aside, how/who was impacted by this facelift, a really well done re-development of the area, in part getting the pedestrians a reason to stay further north/nw of a very busy road in University Drive. (Question for Aggies: why isn't there a pedestrian bridge or tunnel over or under University, the way there is Wellborn and the Railroad tracks on the west side? ) At any rate, great mix of places and crowds, all three nights we hung around the area.
Tailgate: the Grove or Baton Rouge, this isn't but its still a wonderful place to tailgate, plenty of room, as noted. It was a clear 92 degrees Saturday, and breezy, not that humid. We had an elite tailgate host, guy has won some hardware, and his offerings did not disappoint. featured by the Pork Carnitas. Probably 30 folks at his rather large (tented) spot near the hoops arena. We did cheat on him and hit a bar for the 11 am games, but we were successful in convincing the tailgate crew to switch his one TV over to Penn State v Iowa, as it became obvious Georgia wasn't going to fold. What a production. I marvel that people can do this, all the time. I know why Badge and others have thrown in the towel. It is a labor of deep love.
for the record: maybe I'm lucky, but I saw zero bad fan Ass hat activity, any of the three nights, excepting the Astros/ChiSox Friday afternoon game, which had some to be sure. Great surprise for us this weekend, 18pt dogs, a team that looked like a deadman walking for weeks, to see that upset was pretty special.
